This chapter presents the state-of-the-art on interoperability developments for the social and solidarity economy web based information systems. A search on the bibliographic databases showed that there are no articles on interoperability initiatives on the social and solidarity economy, so it was necessary to have other sources of information: a preliminary analysis of the platforms that support social and solidarity economy activities; and interviews with the representatives of some of the world’s most important social and solidarity economy organizations. The study showed that the platforms are still not interoperable, but that there are efforts in this direction promoted by the social and solidarity economy organizations. It is clear that these organizations will need to find a common framework of understanding in order to implement interoperability among their platforms.
TopIntroduction
The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) can be broadly defined as a type of economy in which the goals are different either from the ones of the market economy or from the state's (Lechat, 2007). Allegedly, these goals are neither centered in profit nor in individualistic needs. It is an economy that presents itself as a material and human alternative to capitalist economy (Cattani, Laville, Gaiger & Hespanha, 2009).
Social and solidarity economy organizations are composed of self-organized communities (e.g. geographical or sectorial). These organizations have machine-to-machine communication needs that are internal or external to them, for example to other kind of organizations like governmental organizations. In order to support these machine-to-machine communication needs, there is the need to provide interoperable solutions among the software platforms that support their activities.
According to the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Glossary (Woodley, 2005), interoperability is the ability of different types of computers, networks, operating systems, and applications to work together effectively, without prior communication, in order to exchange information in a useful and meaningful manner.
As we are talking about exchange of information between machines (software), full compliance with international standards is essential.
The objective of this chapter is to draw the state-of-the-art on interoperability developments for the SSE area. This is part of the first phase of a larger project which aims to define an interoperability framework for the SSE. The search on bibliographic databases revealed no initiatives of interoperability between SSE platforms, so it was necessary to replace the literature review with two other sources of information: 1) Preliminary analysis of the platforms that support SSE activities; and 2) Interviews with the representatives of some of the world's most important SSE organizations. They showed that, in fact, the platforms are still not interoperable, but that there are efforts in this direction promoted by these organizations.
This article begins with this introduction, followed by a contextualization section in which the concepts of SSE and semantic interoperability are explained in more detail. The third section explains the methodology used for each of the tasks carried out in defining the state-of-the-art on interoperability developments for the SSE. The following section presents the state-of-the-art mentioned above. The article ends with the conclusions and future work, followed by the acknowledgments and references.